December seems to be a celebratory month for George Miller as he is not only about to direct a new movie but has had his “Mad Max: Fury Road” topping decade list after decade list. However, the past 10 years haven’t been all rosy peaches for Miller as he has been embattled in lawsuits with the WB preventing him from shooting the ‘Fury Road’ sequel “Mad Max: Wasteland,” and had a planned DC movie (“Justice League: Mortal”) fall apart during pre-production. That latter will remain one of the greatest cinematic what-ifs ever. Just imagine Miller’s visual pow directing a ‘Justice League’ movie …
In a recent interview with Deadline, Miller was, of course, asked what he thought of the superhero debate between Martin Scorsese and the MCU– and, given the fact that Miller wanted to direct a DCEU movie, it’s not surprising for us to learn that he is a huge fan of superhero movies:
“I watch all of them,” Miller told Deadline. “To be honest, in terms of this debate, cinema is cinema and it’s a very broad church. The test, ultimately, is what it means to the audience. There’s a great quote I saw that applies to all we do. It was from the Swahili storytellers. Each time they finished a story they would say, ‘The story has been told. If it was bad, it was my fault because I am the storyteller. And if it was good, it belongs to everybody.’”
Miller also points out Scorsese’s “hubris” in assuming that any film that any commercially successful movie would constitute compromised art. “It’s such a broad spectrum, a wide range and to say that anyone is more significant or more important than the other, is missing the point. It’s one big mosaic and each bit of work fits into it.”
“Mad Max: Fury Road,” in a way, is the antithesis of how Marvel and DCEU action sequences are shot. And yet, he seems to love the frenetic cutting, wide-angled framing and thoroughly cartoonish allure that can be found in some of these movies (hey, I love a few MCU movies as well). However, it doesn’t even seem to be a case of them being guilty pleasures for Miller, he genuinely respects them and believes them to be cinematic endeavors.
The debate rages on …
For Schrader, AI solves the curious practical filmmaking problem he had. How about just creating Black people? No casting calls, no agents, no actors turning down the roles.